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Summary

The Conduit is a science-fiction first person shooter for the Wii from High Voltage software. It's High Voltage's ninth Wii title, and they aim to use their experience with the console to show that, despite some people's belief to the contrary, it can host a first class FPS game, aimed at serious gamers rather than the casual audience.

The Conduit uses High Voltage's Quantum 3 game engine, which features bump mapping, reflection and refraction, and gloss and detail mapping, all of which are expected in a modern high end FPS. Quantum 3 also has advanced alien artificial intelligence, which will lead to opponents being bolder when you are at risk, and falling back and taking cover when you outmatch them.

The game takes place in the near future, in a Washington DC that is under threat from an alien invasion. The invading race - the Drudge - use the Conduits of the title to transport their forces to Earth. Black ops agent Michael Ford is in town combating terrorism (of course) and quickly becomes ensnared in the battle against the Drudge. The Drudge themselves are terrifying insect-like beings that are separated into five main types: Mites, Drones, Skimmers, Scarabs and Invaders. Drones are the basic footsoldier, Skimmers can fly, and Scarabs are heavily armoured.

Wii controls and first person shooters are a contentious coupling, and The Conduit aims to overcome this by using a best of breed control method inspired by Metroid Prime 3 and Medal of Honour: Heroes 2. The control system is highly user configurable so that players can find a set up that suits their game-playing style.

The Conduit sports on-line competitive multiplayer gaming for up to 12 players simultaneously, and voice chat is supported via the Wii Speak peripheral. There are thirteen different multi-player modes including standard deathmatch and team-based modes. In Free For All mode, where every player must fend for himself, High Voltage has limited voice chat so that players can only hear the opponents nearest to them. This cuts down on noise, and ads extra realism.